University of Nevada, Reno wins $5 million USDA grant to study changing snowpack

RENO — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded the University of Nevada, Reno a $5 million grant to lead a study on changing snowpack.

UNR scientists will conduct the five-year study with researchers at the Desert Research Institute, Northern Arizona University and Arizona State University.

The study is intended to examine how changes in mountain snowpack are affecting the agriculture industry.

UNR professor Kim Rollins says the impacts of shrinking snowpack have a profound impact on holders of water rights. She says increased risk affects private decisions about selling those rights and could potentially cause permanent losses in the capacity to produce food in the arid West.